Ozro Childs (1824–1890) was a Protestant horticulturalist, merchant, and banker in the 19th century in Los Angeles, California. He was a founder of the University of Southern California. Early years Ozro W. Childs was born in Sutton, Vermont, in 1824, and received his early education there. His father was a farmer, while one of his grandfathers was a town minister. Like many young people in Vermont, he left for the West, first for Ohio, where he earned his living as a schoolteacher. While there, he learned the tinsmith’s trade. Northern California After the discovery of gold in California, he resolved to try his luck in the gold fields. He traveled down the Mississippi to New Orleans, and boarded a ship for Nicaragua; he crossed the Central American peninsula, where he and his fellow passengers endured great hardship, because the promised ship for California did not arrive. After some delay, he took another ship, and arrived in San Francisco in August, 1850, where he set off for the mines. He was unaware that coastal Northern California is foggy in the winter and summer. The weather aggravated the asthma that eventually killed him. He and a man named Hicks took a ship south, arriving at the San Pedro Bay harbor. Southern California Hicks and Childs walked from San Pedro to the small Pueblo de Los Angeles, and established a tinsmithing and hardware store. An existing merchant sold them his entire stock on credit. After a few years, Childs bought out his partner, and eventually left the trade with $40,000. Soon afterward, he contracted to build an extension of the Zanja Madre, a canal system to bring water to the fields south of the pueblo. He was paid in land in that area – all now within present day Downtown Los Angeles - from Sixth to Ninth, and Main to Figueroa Street. This property was the foundation of his fortune. He built a substantial house at 10th and Main, then a half-mile from town center; on his property took up planting. In his day, Ozro Childs was Los Angeles’s most prominent plantsman, with a Plant nursery. In July 1896, [edit? this is after date of death?] Childs and W.L. Hastings, both identified as "well-known society men" were in a "scrap" in front of the Hollenbeck Hotel. "Childs' face was covered with blood and Hastings' jaw was badly bruised," the Los Angeles Evening Express